All Roads Go Back To Staff Wellness – Part 1

Desert Waters recently conducted two webinars reflecting on the construction of correctional staff wellness programs. They are entitled “Reflections on the Construction of Successful Wellness Programs” and “More Reflections on the Construction of Successful Wellness Programs.” The webinars featured two individuals who built from scratch a still existing program in a large state correctional agency, Mr. Bob Bowen and Ms. Stephanie Rawlings. Both webinar sessions are full of useful suggestions for those responsible for a correctional staff wellness program.

During the second webinar, Ms. Rawlings commented on what she had learned as their program grew. She admitted that she had started with a belief that their program was mainly a suicide prevention initiative. And while that was powerful and essential, she soon came to realize that, “When I think about every correctional issue that has been at the forefront of the industry for the last decade, there can be a case that is made that all roads go back to wellness.” In other words, wellness issues were inherent in every component of the correctional profession, and while single interventions were a key starting point, they often revealed the need for broader and more comprehensive courses of action.

This article series is intended to unpack what that might mean to you as you undertake the building of a staff wellness program, regardless of the size or type of agency you might be a part of, and therefore, to provide some guidance as to how you might proceed. Or to provide some guidance as to how you might continue your own program growth, if you are already underway and facing the same questions Ms. Rawlings had.

All roads lead to staff wellness. This sounds like a good, even admirable plan. It suggests wellness needs to be considered at every turn. But does it make good policy? And if you think the answer is an automatic “Yes,” then the next question is crucial: Where does it land in the policy ranking? Especially when you consider all the other mandatory things we must do day after day.

Let’s start at the extreme end of the continuum, the potential for deadly force.

Back in my maximum-security days, a Lieutenant who worked for me was one of the members of a shotgun squad that successfully rescued a Sergeant who had been taken hostage in a housing unit. Six inmates were shot, none fatally. Afterwards, that Lieutenant, who was our primary security skills trainer for several years and was old-school if anybody ever was, would say, “Don’t ever think it’s easy to shoot another person.”

This is decades before formal peer support programs or post-incident interventions, even before an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). And yet this old-school cowboy (trust me on that one) was spontaneously and openly describing his emotional reactions to the acts he was required to perform during this lifesaving rescue . . . during this legally defensible, formally authorized, administratively planned lifesaving rescue of a co-worker he had known for years.

So, what did our use of force policy say about staff wellness following an actual use of force incident? Another obvious answer. Nothing. He was on his own. There was neither assistance nor recognition from the agency.

And to make things worse, in the years following that incident, when we did our annual policy review to make sure our language continued to be legally defensible and in step with the latest professional best practices (How many hours of training? Pain control, yes or no? Carotid hold, yes or no? Gender differences, yes or no? Mental health inmates, yes or no?), did we ever consider how staff might react to their force applications? Said more directly, did we ever consider adding staff wellness requirements to our Use of Force policy? Did all roads lead to staff wellness for us as we were writing formal agency policy? The regrettable but I’m sure not surprising answer is, “No.”

And that is my question to all of you as you build or grow your agency’s staff wellness program: How often do you consider staff wellness when you are writing formal agency policy? Not just your Use of Force policy; any formal agency policy?

From where I sit these days, looking back on the mistakes of decades, if you want to agree that all roads lead to staff wellness, then every policy review agenda should include a staff wellness deliberation. Every one. PREA? For sure. Employee/offender boundaries? Oh yeah. Facility maintenance? You might be surprised. Offender visiting? Yep. Community home visits and job visits? Of course. Interacting with the MH population? Absolutely. Your Hospice program? Without a doubt. Your Pre-Sentence Investigation process, your Minimum Custody Work Crews? Like I said, you might be surprised.

And don’t stop there. What about your Human Resources policies? Injured worker, Sick Leave, Alcohol and Drug Testing? Think big picture too. Your Code of Ethics, your Media Relations, and your Press Releases policies. You might even start by building staff wellness into your policy on Policy Writing. Then you would be sure that all roads go back to staff wellness.

This is not to say that staff wellness will absolutely need to be included in every policy with no exceptions. But thinking about it as a normal part of every policy deliberation accomplishes several things during your building and growth process.

First, frequent formal discussions of staff wellness cause this subject to be elevated in importance. Is staff wellness as fundamental as your security procedures, which you consider without needing them to be a formal agenda item during policy review? Only you can answer that, but if all roads lead to staff wellness then elevating it to that level of organizational subconsciousness, as a necessity that does not need to be explained (much less defended), is a good measure of your understanding of the needs.

Second, policy authors are influential people in any agency. Often, they are the program administrators or other leaders who guide agency operations. Causing them to discuss and deliberate these issues on an on-going basis is a form of team learning where people begin to see their work and the work of others in new, expanded ways. Corrections people are creative. Ideas build on each other and lead to “aha moments” of sudden insight, like those Ms. Rawlings experienced.

Third, policy and budget interconnect, and policy content is where resource allocation is authorized and confirmed. Program requirements are established, standards are set, performance outcomes are clarified. And policy-based resource allocation is where top down (administration) and bottom-up (frontline staff) meet. Those “aha moments” become actual wellness interventions for staff by being built into agency policy.

I’ll end with this. If I were still the administrator for agency staff training like I was for ten years, when it came time to edit the Staff Training policy, I would build in a wellness content requirement for all of our training courses. Because operations impact staff wellness. If you are going to be authorized to use firearms for deadly force, we’re going to write wellness curriculum that you must complete before you are allowed on the range. All roads means ALL roads.